With streaming services such as Netflix introducing tons of TV shows that you may have missed, not to mention tons more available on boxsets and so on, there's probably a good few you might have missed down through the years. You may or may not be familiar with some of these, but we definitely think they're worth a watch.

 

6. CHAPPELLE SHOW

If you've ever heard somebody shout "RICK JAMES BITCH", they were referring to Dave Chapelle's fantastic sketch about 80's funk superstar Rick James. As well as this, Chappelle Show took aim at many other celebrities, including George W. Bush, Prince and created some of his own as well. Unfortunately, the show only ran for two seasons as Chappelle clashed with Comedy Central over the content of the show.

 

 

5. GENERATION KILL

Written by David Simon and Ed Burns, the creators of HBO's The Wire, Generation Kill was a seven-part miniseries that ran in 2008. Focusing on a group of recon marines in Iraq, it shows the mundane details of their lives. Much like The Wire, it's all about institutional ineptitude, black humour and LOTS of cursing. An overlooked masterpiece with fantastic performances from Alexander Skarsgard and House of Cards' Michael Kelly, Generation Kill is a perfect companion piece to The Wire.

 

 

 

4. DEADWOOD

Another HBO series, Deadwood took the Old American West and turned it into something familiar and yet somehow truly vital. Naturally, it's HBO so there's a ton of sex, violence and cursing, but there's a truly meaningful story about chaos, order and life on the edges of society there as well. A truly great cast, headed up by Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane, it tells the story of a frontier town that's on the verge of becoming "civilised" by forces outside of their control. In the same way that Rome was about order being brought to the world, so to was Deadwood. Don't watch if you're offended by bad language, however. Deadwood ran for three seasons before it was unceremoniously cancelled.

 

 

 3. VIKINGS

You might have skipped over this on TV and thought, "Oh, it's a Game of Thrones rip-off." That's not the case. Whilst there are similarities with Game of Thrones - beards, swords, filmed in Ireland - that's pretty much about the height of it. Where Game of Thrones is a huge, sprawling story set over countless regions in a fictional world, Vikings is much more cleaner and focused. It follows Ragnar Lodbrok, a young Viking chieftain with grand designs for his people. Young, impetuous and ambitious, he strikes out to raid England and parts beyond with his merry band of blood-thirsty raiders. The opening theme song is sang by The Knife's Fever Ray. Dark and brutal, it's also truly fascinating to see how the ancient Vikings lived and carried on. There were lots of blood sacrifices, apparently. And something called a Blood Eagle. Yeah. Vikings is currently in its second season.

 

 

2. BATES MOTEL

It may have been dismissed by some snobs as shamelessly plundering Alfred Hitchcock, but to be honest, it's gone way beyond that. Yes, it is based on Psycho, but that's pretty much the framing device. It's more about what Norman Bates the cross-dressing serial killer he became. Not only that, you've got Vera Farmiga as the high-strung mother who looks like she's ready to snap at any minute and very cool set design, too. Everything's been updated for our time, yet it still has an unmistakable 1950's feel to it all. You couple this attention to detail with a slick script and great acting and you've got one of the most underrated TV thrillers in years.

 

 

1. HANNIBAL

We may have mentioned Hannibal before, but it's worth mentioning again. Based in part on the novels Red Dragon, Hannibal and Silence of the Lambs, the TV series Hannibal sets out a new timeline of the famous character and shows what he was like before he became the creepy dude behind the perspex glass. Played by Mads Mikkelsen, this Hannibal is much more guarded. As remarked in the show, he's wearing a "person suit" to hide his true murderous intentions, assisting the FBI in the form of Will Graham and Jack Crawford, played by Hugh Dancy and Laurence Fishburne respectively. Hannibal is equal parts gory horror and psychological thriller - delving into what makes people into terrifying monsters.  Not for the faint of heart.